Effect of template concentration on the catalytic performance of nickel-loaded hierarchical Hβ zeolite prepared by secondary crystallization for benzene hydroalkylation
摘要
Hierarchical Hβ zeolite was synthesized via hydrothermal secondary crystallization using tetraethylammonium hydroxide (TEAOH) as both a base source and a templating agent. The modified Hβ zeolite, loaded with nickel, was employed as a bifunctional catalyst for the hydroalkylation of benzene. The influence of TEAOH concentration on the structural and catalytic properties of the samples was systematically investigated. Characterization techniques such as N2 physisorption, XRD, NH₃-TPD, pyridine-IR, XPS, and TEM revealed that the sample prepared with 0.3 mol/L TEAOH (denoted as Ni/Hβ@0.3 T) exhibited enhanced specific surface area, hierarchical porosity, balanced weak-to-medium acid site distribution, and uniform Ni nanoparticle dispersion. Under optimized reaction conditions (200 °C, 1 h), Ni/Hβ@0.3 T achieved a benzene conversion of 29.6% and cyclohexylbenzene selectivity of 74.8%, outperforming the unmodified zeolite-supported catalyst Ni/Hβ. These improvements are attributed to the synergistic effect of optimized metal–acid site proximity brought about by secondary crystallization modification of the Hβ zeolite carrier.